On Wednesday, the Central Coast tested its tsunami alert system, but a big part of the communication system was silent: the warning sirens. The missing noise brought into question Monterey Bay's readiness in the event of a tsunami.

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In years past when the National Weather Service, Monterey County and the Naval Support Activity Monterey have marked Tsunami Preparedness Week, which is this week, NSAM has tested its sirens. But this year the test warning wasn't sounded.

According to Naval Support Activity Monterey, the sirens, which are located at the Navy Postgraguate School Campus, were never scheduled for a test Wednesday. Public Affairs Officer Melinda Larson with NSAM said the base can sound the sirens whenever officials choose to and will do it at the request of the county for a test like the one Wednesday.

However, the county's emergency services manager, Sherrie Collins, said the county has nothing to do with the sirens sounding at all. “That’s within their own purview," she said Wednesday.

The sirens are an important warning system for residents living along the coast in Monterey County. According to Collins, the base’s sirens are the only ones in Monterey County, and in the past they've been tested as part of Tsunami Preparedness Week. "I believe they did a test last year," Collins said about the sirens.

Many parts of Monterey County face a serious threat from tsunamis. If a significant earthquake were to hit inland, it could cause a subterranean landslide in the Monterey Bay Canyon. Logan Johnson with the National Weather Service said this would be the worst-case scenario the Central Coast would face. “That could produce a very large tsunami wave with only a few minutes of advance warning, if any at all," he said.

The tsunami threat posed by a local earthquake, or by one from across the Pacific, like the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami -- which did significant damage up and down the West Coast -- is why our local government agencies come together to test the alert system.

Johnson said before a tsunami ever hit Monterey Bay, the NWS would be notified by the U.S. Geological Survey of the earthquake causing it. Johnson said his team would then work with the Tsunami Center in Alaska to determine the time the wave would hit and its size. He said after they had that information they would send out an alert to local government agencies, including the county, and television and radio stations.

On Wednesday that alert went out, “we send out a message via our weather radio systemthat can be picked up by local media that can choose to broadcast that message." Johnson said. Local radio and television did air the alert Wednesday but the sirens which are usually a part of the test stayed quiet.

It wasn't the only missed communication of the day. After the tsunami alert test went out from NWS’s Monterey station, the county Office of Emergency Services had a test conference call. Itwas supposed to simulate a call between all of the decision-makers who would need to be involved in the event of a tsunami.

Larson said the NSAM’s emergency management officer was supposed to be on the call, but the phone never rang. “They never called," Larson said.

Collins said the county didn't get NSAM on the phone because the number they had didn't go through. She said they are working on getting the right number for the emergency team at NSAM.

In the event there was a real tsunami and the sirens did not go off, there is another warning system aside from television and radio. "The other way that you would be notified is through the emergency notification systems that we have. So that's everything from Alert Monterey, which is the system that people can set up their cellphones on," Collins said. However she said it would all depend on how much lead time the county has on a tsunami.